Description: Students will learn about caffeine which is a type of alkaloids. Caffeine is a stimulant found naturally in tea, coffee and kola nuts. Other examples of alkaloids include cocaine (a drug of abuse), strychnine (a poison), morphine (a pain killer), piperine (found in black pepper) and quinine (used to treat malaria and added to tonic). Clearly some alkaloids are beneficial and others extremely harmful. In this project, students will learn how to extract caffeine from different beverages.